Thursday, 31 December 2015

Looking Back & Looking Ahead

“If life was a book; every day would be a new page, every month would be a new chapter, and every year would be a new series.”

An entire year
has gone by and tomorrow will be the beginning of a new series. A complete
clean slate, a chance to redeem ourselves, a fresh start. Whatever has gone
wrong this year, 2016 is the year to put it all right. Enter the year with a
positive attitude and you will have a positive year.

This year has
been a massive learning curve, I learnt a lot about myself and the people
around me, many friendships have been lost but better ones have been made. I
had a lot of negative people in my life at the beginning of the year and as the
months went by, I realised that they were having an effect on my happiness so I
made the conscious decision to cut off communication with these people and I
have never been happier. Surrounding yourself with people who make you happy
and feel better about yourself is really important for your mental well being, I
learnt this the hard way.

January through to June were pretty standard, nothing bad happened but nothing particularly exciting happened either. Then came July. In July I got a job at the Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe in Hitchin | A Quick Update - Previously, I had two paper rounds, one on a Thursday and the other on a Sunday which pretty much funded my lifestyle but Year 11 was a matter of months away and I needed a proper job so that I would only be working once a week, giving me more time to concentrate on my studies. Five months later, my best-friend, Roni, also works at the Sweet Shoppe and I could not be happier.Not only did I land myself a job at the most amazing place ever, I also landed myself a monthly column in LoveMag. Starting my blog was the best decision I ever made, I have had so many opportunities in the last almost two years, here's to bigger and better things for Fran & Co in 2016! Also in July, I went to Thrope Park for the first time, I documented my experience here | A New Adventure and on Tuesday 14th July, after 4 years of intense hard work, my Mum graduated from the University of Bedfordshire with a degree in Business Management. August through to December have been pretty hectic, deadlines here, there, everywhere! But deadlines have not stopped me from being a shopaholic, my yearly bank statement is sitting on my desk, unopened and that is how it will remain until I am mental stable to accept the damage I have done over the past 4-5 months. On December 26th, I turned 16, at last I can do online banking and open an ISA with Barclays, the little things ay. My bestfriend Roni and I drove down to London to tackle the Boxing Day sales, suprisingly it was not as busy as expected. I was born and lived in London, so going back every now and again brings back many childhood memories. Whilist in London, we decided to head to Winter Wonderland, we went for the first time last year | Winter Wonderland 2014 and have made it a yearly tradition to go together. I have never celebrated a birthday with a friend before, most of my previous birthdays have been spent with family. Probably the best birthday I have ever had, huge thank you to Roni, Kingsley and Nina for making my day extra special!

It is time to
start thinking of things I would like to achieve and do in 2016. Next year I will be
documenting all my achievements and adventures, I really want to expand my blog
and make it more personal. I have met some amazing people through blogging this
year, Florence, Amber, Tori the list goes on and next year, I would like to meet more of you and create even more
friendships.

Next year I will stay organised. This is something I did quite a lot in 2015 and next year this will be a cruical as I have my GCSE exams starting in May. I want to make sure I am fully organised so I can avoid unwanted stress and achieve the best possible grades. So that I have regular posts during the next few months, I have decided to start a blogging schedule for 2016, a new post will go up every two weeks on a Monday at 18:00 GMT.

I will also be more
adventurous and will explore more cities and embark on new experiences and adventures.

And lastly, I will focus on my happiness. I will do things that make me happy and surround myself with
people who make me happy. I will be the best possible version of me. As a society,
I think we have lost who we really are, many of us are constantly wishing we could look like someone else or have another life. This year I want to be content and appreciate the things I have and the people in my life.